Writing and Rhetoric major Aaqilah Wright has been awarded a SOURCE grant from the Office of Research, to work on her project, “Bus Over Bridges: Educational Access Across Communities in LA” in the coming year.

Of her project, Aaqilah says, "Oftentimes, I try to express my gratitude and grit as they relate to the experiences I’ve encountered that have made me a better person. For me, my four years of high school were some of the most eye-opening, life-changing years of my life, and as I reflected, I realized how this typically mundane experience has changed my perspective and outlook on life. So, I wanted to write about that. My research project, ‘Bus Over Bridges: Educational Access Across Communities in LA,’ isn’t just about a girl, a bus ride from the inner-city to the suburbs, and urban education. It’s about becoming and grappling with ever-changing ideals of identity and socioeconomic position from one social barrier to the next. I am using my personal story to guide my research. ‘Bus Over Bridges’ tells the story of underrepresented and underprivileged people of color who must exit their original environments to find a place in this world."

Aaqilah’s research mentor for this project, Associate Professor Tony Scott, adds, “Aaqilah is working on identities, histories and movement across places and time. Her project, ‘Buses over Bridges,’ will involve narrative, interviews, secondary research, photography and animation. It aims to describe the injustices that are entrenched in the geographic, bureaucratic and political topographies of American cities, and the emotional and psychological dissonances that come with crossing, but not transcending, racial and socioeconomic borders. Aaqilah is a talented thinker and writer. I am so happy that she got this support, and I am very much looking forward to working with her and seeing where she goes with this project.”